PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday admitted to hearing two identical petitions against the recent cancellation of appointment of around 800 prison department employees by the provincial government over the alleged irregularities.

A bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali issued notices to the respondents, including the provincial home secretary and inspector general of prisons, asking them to clarify their respective position on the matter.

At the same time, it stopped the provincial government from filling the said posts, to which petitioners were appointed, until further orders.

The schedule of the next hearing will be announced afterward.

The two petitions were filed by around 340 of the sacked employees, who said the government’s order to cancel their appointments was illegal and unconstitutional.

Stops government from filling posts until further orders

Ijaz Khan Sabi, lawyer for the petitioners, said they were not issued any show cause notice or opportunity of personal hearing and they had been condemned unheard.

He said the impugned order issued by the superintendent headquarters (prison) on Feb 16 was unjust and illegal.

The impugned order was issued after the matter was raised in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by a group of disgruntled MPAs of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

They had charged the adviser to the chief minister on prison Malik Mohammad Qasim of making irregularities in these appointments.

They had also raised the matter in a meeting with PTI chief Imran Khan.

Lawyer Ijaz Khan said the petitioners were qualified for the post of jail warders and constables as they were holding secondary school certificates and fell within the age limit of 18-30 years.

He said the superintendent headquarters had published an advertisement initially on Feb 23, 2014, and then a corrigendum was issued on April 4 inviting applications to fill up 800 posts of jail warders/ constables in various jails, internment centres, judicial lock-up, etc.

The lawyer said the petitioners were subjected to written test as well as interview which they accordingly qualified.

He said after qualifying the test and interview, the petitioners were appointed by the superintendent and individual appointment orders were issued on Jan 22.

The lawyer said the petitioners were medically examined and were found fit for the job and they accordingly assumed the charge of their duty at their respective duty stations and were also issued their service cards.

He said all of them performed duties for 19-20 days when all of a sudden the impugned order was issued on Feb 16, whereby orders of their appointments were cancelled.

The lawyer said the petitioners were appointed in line with the prescribed formalities as the proper advertisement was made to which thousands of people applied and they were shortlisted through a comprehensive physical and written test and thereafter they were appointed.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2015

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